1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a device management apparatus that controls various devices such as field devices, a device management method and a device management program.
Priority is claimed on Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-225816, filed Sep. 3, 2008, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
All patents, patent applications, patent publications, scientific articles, and the like, which will hereinafter be cited or identified in the present application, will hereby be incorporated by reference in their entirety in order to describe more fully the state of the art to which the present invention pertains.
Recently, a plant has been scaled up and integrated so as to improve productivity and production efficiency. In general, operations in the plant are held in a highly automated manner using a Distributed Control System, hereinafter referred to as a DCS. Along with the automation, various intelligent devices such as field devices are introduced in the plant. The field devices are made by various makers and often have different specifications. As a result, it is difficult to manage the field devices.
Recently, the management of the field devices is held by using a device management apparatus that is designed using a technology of a Field Device Tool, hereinafter referred to as a FDT, and a Device Type Manager, hereinafter referred to as a DTM, to overcome the different specifications of the field devices. As a result, the field devices are managed in a unified manner.
The FDT is an open interface specification that performs a data exchange between the device management apparatus and the field devices. The data exchange is independent of the type of a communication bus or a communication protocol. The DTM is an application performing a communication, a setting, a diagnosis, etc. of the field devices.
FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a main configuration of the conventional device management apparatus. The conventional device management apparatus 100 includes an FDT frame application 110, device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - , and a communication DTM 130. The communication DTM 130 is connected to field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - through a bus B100. The conventional device management apparatus 100 controls the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - . Each of the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - corresponds to a respective one of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - . The conventional device management apparatus 100 is realized by installing a program to a computer such as a personal computer. The FDT frame application 110, the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - , and the communication DTM 130 are realized by loading and executing the program that is made based on the FDT specification.
The FDT frame application 110 controls the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - and the communication DTM 130. The FDT frame application 110 links the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - to the communication DTM 130. The FDT frame application 110 provides an interface that enables a user to operate the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - and the communication DTM 130. Each of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - has a respective function. Each of the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - controls the respective one of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - , and performs the respective function of the respective one of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - . Each of the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - has a user interface that displays parameters of the respective one of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - . The display of the parameters is performed based on information from the communication DTM 130. The display of the parameters is performed in a format that is easy for the user to recognize.
The communication DTM 130 is disposed between the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - and the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - , and is connected to the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - through the bus B100. The communication DTM 130 performs transmission of various information between the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - and the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - through the bus B100. The communication DTM 130 controls the bus B100. The communication DTM 130 receives information from the bus B100 that includes information from the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - , and performs formatting of the received information based on the FDT specification. The formatted information includes device information of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - . The communication DTM 130 outputs the formatted information to the field device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - . The communication DTM 130 receives information from each of the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - , and performs setting of the respective field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - based on the respective received information. The FDT frame application 110, the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - , and the communication DTM 130 are made by various makers.
In the above mentioned configuration, when the user instructs the FDT frame application 110 to operate the field device 201, such as, to collect parameters of the field device 201, information of the instruction is output from the FDT frame application 110 to the device DTM 121. The device DTM 121 receives the information of the instruction, and outputs the received information to the communication DTM 130. The communication DTM 130 receives the information, and outputs the received information to the field device 201 through the bus B100. Then collection of parameters of the field device 201 is performed in the field device 201. The collected parameters are transmitted from the filed device 201 to the device DTM 121 through the bus B100 and the communication DTM 130. The collected parameters are displayed on the user interface of the device DTM 121 in the format that is easy for the user to recognize.
Details of the above mentioned device management apparatus 100 is mentioned in the following nonpatent literatures.    [Nonpatent literature 1]
Hideyuki Sakamoto, FDT/DTM Lifecycle Management of Field Devices, Instrumentation and Automation, July, 2006, pp. 26-29.    [Nonpatent literature 2]
Isao Hirooka et al., FieldMate Field Device Management Tool for New Era, Yokogawa Technical Report English Edition, No. 44, 2007, pp. 9-12.
Recently, in the field of the device management apparatus that performs management of the field devices, there is an idea to store the operation history of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - and to use the stored operation history for maintenance from a standpoint of asset management. In a general specification of the FDT, there is a scheme to store the operation history, so the above mentioned idea is thought to be achieved by using the scheme. But an implementation of the scheme to store the operation history is not essential but optional in the FDT specification, and the operation history of the field devices 201, 202, 203, - - - is not necessarily given.
Even if the scheme to store the operation history is implemented, data collect target, data collect frequency, data format, etc. vary from DTM to DTM such as the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - and the communication DTM 130. In order to get a useful information from the collected data, enormous effort such as data shaping is needed. It is difficult to get a useful operation history for maintenance when various kind of DTMs such as the device DTMs 121, 122, 123, - - - and the communication DTM 130 are mixed.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved method to collect an operation history from various devices. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.